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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Modeling Methods for 3D Lightning Mapping from Space

Global lightning detection has advanced greatly over the past few decades both on ground and from orbit. Ground-based systems like the Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) excel at high-precision 3D reconstruction of local flashes, while spaceborne lightning sensors have much larger potential coverage but are limited by coarser resolution and often rely on data from other instruments to determine 3D flash locations. CubeSpark is a new mission concept focused on combining these two methods in the form of six small satellites in low-Earth orbit. CubeSpark will combine RF and bispectral optical measurements of lightning in order to map the 3D structure of both individual flashes and their parent thunderstorms at 1-2 km spatial resolution on a global scale, enabling a host of new atmospheric, climate, and space electricity studies. The goal of this study is to assess the feasibility and expected resolution of lightning mapping via indivudal VHF sources using different methods and detector combinations. Flashes were simulated beneath orbital configurations consisting of 1-6 satellites, taking into account the complicated interactions with Earth's ionosphere. In the multi-satellite (>5) approach, RF detectors on each satellite measure the arrival times of impulsive VHF sources to collectively pinpoint their locations in 3D and reconstruct flashes with higher resolution than has been achieved from space. The same can process can be performed with 3-4 satellites by constraining sources' horizontal locations with onboard optical imagers. A 1-2 station approach follows the established method of determining the height of an RF source using the arrival time difference between direct RF waves and their reflections off the Earth's surface. Here we present preliminary results of the expected accuracy of these methods to inform potential satellite missions like CubeSpark.

Lightning↗
NASA NTRS1991

Scattering of sound waves by a compressible vortex

Scattering of plane sound waves by a compressible vortex is investigated by direct computation of the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations. Nonreflecting boundary conditions are utilized, and their accuracy is established by comparing results on different sized domains. Scattered waves are directly measured from the computations. The resulting amplitude and directivity pattern of the scattered waves is discussed, and compared to various theoretical predictions. For compact vortices (zero circulation), the scattered waves directly computed are in good agreement with predictions based on an acoustic analogy. Strong scattering at about + or - 30 degrees from the direction of incident wave propagation is observed. Back scattering is an order of magnitude smaller than forward scattering. For vortices with finite circulation refraction of the sound by the mean flow field outside the vortex core is found to be important in determining the amplitude and directivity of the scattered wave field.

Colonius, Tim↗
NASA NTRS1980

Microstructure of the interplanetary magnetic field near 4 and 5 AU

Interplanetary magnetic field fluctuations near 4 and 5 AU are investigated on the basis of Pioneer 10 and 11 vector magnetic field measurements in order to identify extant wave modes and propagation directions as functions of frequency in the range 0.00004 to 0.009 Hz. Analysis of the approximately 500 spectral matrices as functions of frequency obtained from each spacecraft indicates the distributions of maximum variance directions to be peaked along the normal to the plane of the minimum variance direction and the mean magnetic field, as would be expected for a planar, small-amplitude Alfven wave with a minimum variance direction close to the wave vector. It is thus inferred that single small-amplitude Alfven waves are occasionally present in the temporal and frequency bands analyzed, however waves with wave vectors not well approximated by the minimum variance direction, Alfven wave ensembles, finite-amplitude waves and nonplanar fluctuations may also be present. Observations are also noted to suggest the predominance of the Alfven mode over the fast and slow modes, however do not support theoretical models of outward propagating plane Alfven waves of solar origin.

Parker, G. D.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Polarization aberration analysis of the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility Telescope assembly

The Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) Telescope consists of six concentric paraboloid-hyperboloid pairs of mirrors that operate near grazing incidence. Because of the substantial polarization effects at large angles of incidence there has been concern regarding the feasibility of doing polarimetry near the telescope focal plane. The primary mirror is here shown to act as a tangentially directed half-wave linear retarder and almost completely to depolarize the linearly polarized component of the light. The secondary mirror introduces and additional half-wave of linear retardance. The two-mirror telescope assembly acts as a tangentially directed one-wave linear retarder. Each mirror depolarizes alone but together the two-mirror assembly preserves the polarization state. The net instrumental polarization effects are small and polarimetry is feasible with AXAF.

Chipman, Russell A.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Statistical analysis of diffuse ion events upstream of the Earth's bow shock

A statistical study of diffuse energetic ion events and their related waves upstream of the Earth's bow shock was performed using data from the Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorers/Ion Release Module (AMPTE/IRM) satellite over two 5-month periods in 1984 and 1985. The data set was used to test the assumption in the self-consistent model of the upstream wave and particle populations by Lee (1982) that the particle acceleration through hydromagnetic waves and the wave generation are directly coupled. The comparison between the observed wave power and the wave power predicted on the observed energetic particle energy density and solar wind parameters results in a high correlation coefficient of about 0.89. The intensity of diffuse ions falls off approximately exponentially with the distance upstream from the bow shock parallel to the magnetic field with e-folding distances which vary from approximately 3.3 R(sub E) to approximately 11.7 R(sub E) over the energy range from 10 keV/e to 67.3 keV/e for both protons and alpha particles. After normalizing the upstream particle densities to zero bow shock distance by using these exponential variations, a good correlation (0.7) of the density of the diffuse ions with the solar wind density was found. This supports the suggestion that the solar wind is the source of the diffuse ions. Furthermore, the spectral slope of the diffuse ions correlates well with the solar wind velocity component in the direction of the interplanetary magnetic field (0.68 and 0.66 for protons and alpha particles) which concurs with the notion that the solar wind plays an important role in the acceleration of the upstream particles.

Trattner, K. J.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Reverberant Acoustic Testing and Direct Field Acoustic Testing Acoustic Standing Waves and their Impact on Structural Responses

The aerospace industry has been using two methods of acoustic testing to qualify flight hardware: (1) Reverberant Acoustic Test (RAT), (2) Direct Field Acoustic Test (DFAT). The acoustic field obtained by RAT is generally understood and assumed to be diffuse, expect below Schroeder cut-of frequencies. DFAT method of testing has some distinct advantages over RAT, however the acoustic field characteristics can be strongly affected by test setup such as the speaker layouts, number and location of control microphones and control schemes. In this paper the following are discussed based on DEMO tests performed at APL and JPL: (1) Acoustic wave interference patterns and acoustic standing waves, (2) The structural responses in RAT and DFAT.

vibro-acoustics↗
NASA NTRS1992

Observations of a new class of upstream waves with periods near 3 seconds

A new class of ULF waves with periods near 3 s in the earth's upstream region is found by examining the high time resolution magnetic field data from the ISEE spacecraft. These waves are observed in the part of the upstream region which is magnetically connected to the bow shock, but only when the solar wind plasma beta is high (greater than 1). The waves are always right-handed, nearly circularly polarized in the spacecraft frame. The directions of the wave vectors are in the general direction of the average magnetic field, and the waves are convected downstream in the spacecraft frame. This study of these waves has shown that they appear to be intrinsically left-handed ion cyclotron waves in the plasma rest frame.

Le, G.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Seasat detection of waves, currents and inlet discharge

A new era of remote sensing for coastal and oceanographic monitoring was born on June 26, 1978 with the launch of Seasat. Duck-X was a 2 month experiment conducted during August to October 1978 off the east coast of the U.S.A. for the validation of the Seasat synthetic aperture radar (SAR). During this field experiment, various oceanographic phenomena were monitored. Ground truth observations of these phenomena have been correlated with Seasat SAR imagery. The ground truth sensors included airborne photographic and radar imagery, meteorological satellite imagery, land based radars, and conventional wave gauges. The direction and length of the principal ocean wave trains are compared for the periods of Seasat overflight of the Duck-X area. During these overflights significant wave heights were 1.5 m and less and the maximum wave period was 15 sec. The current correlations concentrate on the western boundary of the Gulf Stream and its associated eddy structure. Inlet outflow is shown for inlets on the east coast of the U.S.A. This ground truth study has indicated that the SAR imagery contains an unanticipated abundance of information on a variety of oceanographic and coastal phenomena.

Mattie, M. G.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Characterization of composite materials by means of the ultrasonic stress wave factor

The usual approach to nondestructively evaluating a composite structure involves inspection and mechanical analysis of the inspection results. Such an approach has met with only limited success. On the other hand, the ultrasonic stress wave factor technique directly evaluates the material. Despite requiring access to only one surface of the material, the technique interrogates the material in the directions of applied load. Using the stress wave factor technique it is possible to determine the failure location in the material. The correlation of the stress wave factor with stiffness is shown. In addition, the use of the technique for determining the strength or life of composite material structures is discussed.

Duke, J. C., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Hydromagnetic vortices. I - The 11 December 1977 event

Through a synthesis of magnetometer, plasma, energetic particle and electric field data from the ISEE satellite pair, the characteristics of the initial (11 December 1977) magnetotail plasma vortex event reported by Hones et al. (1978), are described. The event is associated with a hot (beta is approximately unity) compressional hydromagnetic wave and apparent vortical motion is seen because at two points in the flow cycle the flow is field-aligned. The behavior of the energetic ions receives special study: when combined with the thermal flow measurements energy dispersion is evident in the field-aligned flow, while the large pitch angle energetic ions reveal the presence of gradients. It is argued that these gradients are wave-induced, and the data are used to determine the perpendicular wave wavelength together with the speed and direction of transverse wave propagation.

Saunders, M. A.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Interactions of Tollmien-Schlichting waves and Dean vortices. Comparison of direct numerical simulation and a weakly nonlinear theory

Direct numerical simulation is used to evaluate a weakly nonlinear theory describing the interaction of Tollmien-Schlichting waves with Dean vortices in curved channel flow. The theory and the simulation agree for certain combinations of parameters, but the two approaches give conflicting results for other combinations. Some possibilities for these discrepancies are discussed.

Singer, Bart A.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Optimal spatial filtering and transfer function for SAR ocean wave spectra

The impulse response of the SAR system is not a delta function and the spectra represent the product of the underlying image spectrum with the transform of the impulse response which must be removed. A digitally computed spectrum of SEASAT imagery of the Atlantic Ocean east of Cape Hatteras was smoothed with a 5 x 5 convolution filter and the trend was sampled in a direction normal to the predominant wave direction. This yielded a transform of a noise-like process. The smoothed value of this trend is the transform of the impulse response. This trend is fit with either a second- or fourth-order polynomial which is then used to correct the entire spectrum. A 16 x 16 smoothing of the spectrum shows the presence of two distinct swells. Correction of the effects of speckle is effected by the subtraction of a bias from the spectrum.

Beal, R. C.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Coronal Alfven waves detected by radio sounding during the solar occultations of the Helios spacecraft

The two Helios spacecraft underwent regular solar occultations during their extended missions from Dec 1974-Feb 1986 (Helios 1) and Jan 1976-Mar 1980 (Helios 2) thereby providing many opportunities for radio propagation experiments in the solar corona. On certain rare occasions over the course of these investigations, Faraday rotation measurements of the linearly polarized Helios signals could be recorded simultaneously at two widely-spaced ground stations. Many of these two-station measurement intervals display clear evidence of wave-like structures with quasi-periods of the order of a few minutes to a few hours. These structures are attributed to coronal Alfven waves. The radial propagation direction and velocity of these waves are estimated from a cross-correlation analysis of the data between the two stations. The majority of the waves appear to propagate away from the Sun, but about 30 percent of the cases indicate a propagation direction toward the Sun.

Bird, M. K.↗
NASA NTRS1993

A solution scheme for the Euler equations based on a multi-dimensional wave model

A scheme for the solution of scalar advection on an unstructured mesh has been developed, tested, and extended to the Euler equations. The scheme preserves a linear function exactly, and yields nearly monotone results. The flux function associated with the Euler scheme is based on a discrete 'wave model' for the system of equations. The wave model decomposes the solution gradient at a location into shear waves, entropy waves and acoustic waves and calculates the speeds, strengths and directions associated with the waves. The approach differs from typical flux-difference splitting schemes in that the waves are not assumed to propagate normal to the faces of the control volumes; directions of propagation of the waves are instead computed from solution-gradient information. Results are shown for three test cases, and two different wave models. The results are compared to those from other approaches, including MUSCL and Galerkin least squares schemes.

Powell, Kenneth G.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Attributing Tropical Cyclogenesis to Equatorial Waves in the Western North Pacific

The direct influences of equatorial waves on the genesis of tropical cyclones are evaluated. Tropical cyclogenesis is attributed to an equatorial wave when the filtered rainfall anomaly exceeds a threshold value at the genesis location. For an attribution threshold of 3 mm/day, 51% of warm season western North Pacific tropical cyclones are attributed to tropical depression (TD)-type disturbances, 29% to equatorial Rossby waves, 26% to mixed Rossby-Gravity waves, 23% to Kelvin waves, 13% to the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO), and 19% are not attributed to any equatorial wave. The fraction of tropical cyclones attributed to TD-type disturbances is consistent with previous findings. Past studies have also demonstrated that the MJO significantly modulates tropical cyclogenesis, but fewer storms are attributed to the MJO than any other wave type. This disparity arises from the difference between attribution and modulation. The MJO produces broad regions of favorable conditions for cyclogenesis, but the MJO alone might not determine when and where a storm will develop within these regions. Tropical cyclones contribute less than 17% of the power in any portion of the equatorial wave spectrum because tropical cyclones are relatively uncommon equatorward of 15deg latitude. In regions where they are active, however, tropical cyclones can contribute more than 20% of the warm season rainfall and up to 50% of the total variance. Tropical cyclone-related anomalies can significantly contaminate wave-filtered precipitation at the location of genesis. To mitigate this effect, the tropical cyclone-related rainfall anomalies were removed before filtering in this study.

Schreck, Carl J., III↗
NASA NTRS2011

Receiver Signal to Noise Ratios for IPDA Lidars Using Sine-wave and Pulsed Laser Modulation and Direct Detections

Integrated path differential absorption (IPDA) lidar can be used to remotely measure the column density of gases in the path to a scattering target [1]. The total column gas molecular density can be derived from the ratio of the laser echo signal power with the laser wavelength on the gas absorption line (on-line) to that off the line (off-line). 80th coherent detection and direct detection IPDA lidar have been used successfully in the past in horizontal path and airborne remote sensing measurements. However, for space based measurements, the signal propagation losses are often orders of magnitude higher and it is important to use the most efficient laser modulation and detection technique to minimize the average laser power and the electrical power from the spacecraft. This paper gives an analysis the receiver signal to noise ratio (SNR) of several laser modulation and detection techniques versus the average received laser power under similar operation environments. Coherent detection [2] can give the best receiver performance when the local oscillator laser is relatively strong and the heterodyne mixing losses are negligible. Coherent detection has a high signal gain and a very narrow bandwidth for the background light and detector dark noise. However, coherent detection must maintain a high degree of coherence between the local oscillator laser and the received signal in both temporal and spatial modes. This often results in a high system complexity and low overall measurement efficiency. For measurements through atmosphere the coherence diameter of the received signal also limits the useful size of the receiver telescope. Direct detection IPDA lidars are simpler to build and have fewer constraints on the transmitter and receiver components. They can use much larger size 'photon-bucket' type telescopes to reduce the demands on the laser transmitter. Here we consider the two most widely used direct detection IPDA lidar techniques. The first technique uses two CW seeder lasers, one on-line and one offline that are intensity modulated by two different frequency sine-waves signals before being amplified by a common laser amplifier. The receiver uses narrowband amplitude demodulation, or lock-in, Signal processing at the given laser modulation frequencies [3,4]. The laser transmitter operates in a quasi CW mode with the peak power equal to twice the average power. The on-line and off-line lasers can be transmitted at the same time without interference. Another direct detection technique uses a low duty cycle pulsed laser modulation [5,6] with the laser wavelengths alternating between on-line and off-line on successive pulses. The receiver uses time resolved detection and can also provide simultaneous target range measurement. With a lower laser duty cycle it requires a much higher peak laser power for the same average power.

Sun, Xiaoli↗
NASA NTRS1991

A video-aided study of sea spikes in radar backscatter at moderate incidence

Backscatter from a lake was measured at a 37-deg incidence angle using an FM-CW radar operating on X band and C band simultaneously. A limited amount of Ka-band data was also collected at 50 deg incidence. A video camera recorded the activity within the footprint looking upwind and crosswind. The video showed that breaking waves at all look directions and wedge-shaped waves when looking upwind consistently produced spikes in the radar time series. However, 62 percent to 90 percent of the spikes were not attributable to any surface structure visible on the video picture except wave crests. These spikes may be due to specular reflections or micro-scale breaking too small to be seen. Individual contributions to the backscattering coefficient were calculated for unattributed spikes, breaker spikes, and wedge spikes.

Bush, Daniel A.↗